My inbox is bursting at the seams while I notice that beside the many business mails there also many from fellow bloggers or girls who’d like to start one asking for some tips and tricks. The good girl I am (haha) I always try to answer them all but my time is running lower and lower recently. So why not starting with a new blog series – the last one is a year ago – to answer those questions for everybody. A word thought and a blow, so this is the very first part of it and we’re starting at the very beginning!

1. Wordpress.org vs. Blogger
Just like the most bloggers I started my first blog «Beware of my heels» back in 2010 over Blogger. The reason was simply because the platform ist super easy and uncomplicated to handle. You have a few very basic templates to choose from and you can change them a bit according to your taste with some self-taught HTML coding via google. With an emphasis on “a bit” because you don’t have many possibilities. In my opinion it’s clever to start directly with WordPress due to the following reasons. First of all, Blogger (and with it all the datas you upload onto it) is owned by Google. Furthermore WordPress serves a big amount of beautiful themes (here for example) which are available on the cheap or sometimes even for free. Or you realize your very own design which is for sure not really cheap but rather unique. Be aware, that WordPress might be complicate at the very beginning and it might takes a little longer to figure out how to work with it but it’s really worth it! Especially if you watch the fact that Google could actually just shut down Blogger if they want to whereas WordPress is an Open Source platform created by a community of developers and users, so the risk is definitely smaller.

2. What themes do I want to cover?
Before you even think about a name or a layout for your blog, you should rather think about what you actually want to share with your readers. Feel free to have a look at other blogs that you may read since a long time to draw inspiration from them and to learn what readers like to see and/or read. But try to find your own way instead of copying someone else, that’s just boring! The themes should really interest yourself so that you’re able to spread the passion it. So what do you like? Fashion? Beauty? Travel? Food? Photography? Graphic Design? Architecture? Music? Focus on a main topic (here it’s obviously fashion) and choose some more themes that interest you to supplement your main topic and ease the content of the blog

3. How do you want to communicate the themes?
While some bloggers focus on just sharing pictures which inspire, others love to write a lot along there photos. Choose if you want to share your thoughts or if you “only” want to be a source of pictorial inspiration. You can have a look at the bloggers located near you (for me it’s the ones in Switzerland, Germany and Austria) to analyze how they handle it and what words best. While people in my area appreciate and expect to read my thoughts in other countries, such as Sweden, bloggers usually post more often but share less pictures and less text so it’s more like a real diary. But as I said, don’t be overly influenced by this because in the end you need to have fun with your blog otherwise you’ll shut it down in a week.

4. How do you want to call your baby?After you did choose your topic and you know how you want to communicate these topics in the future, you definitely need a matching name for the blog. There are three possibilities: A fictitious name like my “The Fashion Fraction” or Chiara Ferragni’s “The Blonde Salad“, your very own name like Nina Suess or an alias just like Masha Sedgwick. Honestly if I’d start my blog now, I’d go for one of the last options.

5. How should your baby look like?We’ve already been talking about the design in the first point but now let’s get back to it. The outfit of your blog should match its content. So when you choose your theme (just google for “WordPress themes” and you’ll definitely make a find) or create your very own design, pay attention that you leave space for your pictures. No one wants to take out a microscope to see your pictures! You should also avoid to big pictures which don’t fit into the screen! Regarding fonts, don’t go for the fancy ones which make it hard to read your tests but instead choose for a clean font which is pretty but at the same time user-friendly. You should also avoid bright colors because your pictures should be in the middle of the attention – in the end we are all visual people! Very important: Make sure that your theme is responsive so that it will also look nice on a mobile phone or iPad.

6. Watch out for a partner
Being a lone fighter is always hard, especially if you decide for fashion and want to share outfits of yourself. It is an advantage to have a partner to take photos with. This can be your boyfriend, a friend or ideally another blogger who understands if you’re still not happy with the pictures after taking hundreds already. Joy and I started like this some years ago until I hired her as my photographer one year ago and we started focusing on The Fashion Faction together. Having a great partner can also be a motivation and you can push each other.

7. Which social media channels do you want to use
«Only» running a blog is not enough these days. If you want to have a certain success, you need to cover the most important social media channels. You don’t have to be a part everywhere because some of them are losing their importance very quickly others are a must because they’re growing quickly. Shorty speaking: Facebook isn’t as important as it was anymore, Twitter isn’t relevant in Switzerland (probably Europe in general) but instead Instagram and Snapchat are obligatory!! Especially the latter will probably be the shit in the future – in a positive meaning ;) Although sometimes I raise some doubts.

8. Stay realistic
So many of the questions landing in my inbox are already about how to receive free clothing and invitations to events. These are for sure amazing things and can definitely be a motivation to put even more effort into the blog but should most definitely NOT be the reason to start a blog. Let’s stay realistic, no one is waiting for you to start a blog so that she/he is able to send you a present – you have to deserve it!

9. Management is everything
Planing is probably much more important than you think. You already gave many thought by now which are important for the start of your blog, but the planing doesn’t stop. I’m sorry. Now you need to bring structure into your postings. Make a plan on which days you want to post and at which time. For example, I post on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. It helps me to keep it rolling and makes it easier for me to organize my time. Maybe you even want to plan certain topics for certain days like a Food Friday when you always post a new recipe. I’ll probably share more about the whole planing thing in another post.

So, that was a lot of information! You can clap yourself on the shoulder that you’ve been so diligent to read all of this! In case that you’re in the mood for even more blogging tips and can’t wait for the next part of the “Blogger Tips Series” head over to this post where I already gave some tips how to run a successful blog. Some of those tips might come up the the upcoming part of this series but if you’re a curious person, you can’t miss it ;)

Hello! I love this post, it really helps to get a better view of everything.
I run the blog http://www.stellaurus.com & its mainly about fashion and art. I also travel a lot.

I have a vision how I want my blog to be – I share my designs and photos of looks and travel diaries. The problem is, I never have anybody to take the pictures of me, for me. Fashion is so important to me – and I want to inspire others.

If there is someone living in Finland willing to have photoshoots and stuff like that with me, it would be magnificent! Contact me through this or my blog.

Great tips girl ! So perfect for anyone starting out or even a few years into it ! I have been debating switching over to WordPress recently and I just can’t decide but I think I might ! Ahhh ! Scary ! Also, gorgeous outfit ! I LOVE the sleeves on that top, such a lovely piece <3